Sushma Swaraj blesses Janardhan Reddy (right) and Karnataka health minister B Sriramalu.

New Delhi, Nov. 5: “Anarkali” is ready to leave but the dissidents are still asking for “Salim’s” head.

Karnataka minister Shobha Karandlaje’s exit seems almost certain but BJP leaders were not yet sure whether the resignation of chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s confidante would buy peace with the recalcitrant Reddy brothers of Bellary.

“A few things still need to be sorted out. Till we come to the end of talks with both sides, nothing can be said. But the talks are progressing positively,” a source said.

Earlier this week, a source had hinted at a solution to the standoff over flood relief efforts by quoting a line from the film Mughal-e-Azam — “Hindustan ka takht chahiye ya Anarkali (Do you want to rule Hindustan or covet Anarkali?)?”

It was the choice Akbar had ordered Salim (later Jehangir) to make when he found out that his son was besotted with the courtesan.

A PTI report from Bangalore today quoted Karandlaje, who has put off many ministers and MLAs, as saying: “If the party wants me to quit, I will oblige.”

Yeddyurappa tonight agreed to drop Karandlaje, a Karnataka source said, but the Reddys also want three or four ministers axed. The chief minister apparently said “nothing doing”. Yeddyurappa also wants Karandlaje rehabilitated as state party chief, but the suggestion was rejected outright by the central leadership.

With peace slow in coming, the chief minister has been told to stop talking tough.

Yeddyurappa, who landed in the capital last night, was firmly told by the BJP brass that if he wanted to keep his job, he should stop threatening disciplinary action against the Reddy brothers. Two of the brothers — all mining magnates — are ministers in Yeddyurappa’s government and the third is a legislator.

“The Reddys don’t come within the ambit of indiscipline,” a senior leader said.

Yeddyurappa was also told not to “demoralise” the MLAs by warning of an early election as a way of shaking off the Reddys. He was reminded that the simple majority he had was possible only because the Reddys had weaned away the six legislators he required.

A source said Yeddyurappa might “believe” he would get another term on the sympathy factor. “But voters will not be kind to him every time.”

Yeddyurappa, who earlier shared power with Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (S), had gone to voters saying he needed another term to complete unfinished work after the former Prime Minister’s party had pulled out.

A sign of things to come was the refusal of one of the Reddy brothers, K. Janardhan, to meet Yeddyurappa despite requests from party veteran Sushma Swaraj whom he reveres as “mother”.

“I will not meet the CM,” he told reporters today after a meeting with Sushma. “Why should I meet him?”

Yeddyurappa was also “advised” to be “objective” about flood relief management and not get worked up if the Reddys wanted to start a parallel relief enterprise.

“He can’t have double standards,” a source said, alluding to Yeddyurappa’s move to “virtually outsource” his government’s flood relief endeavours to a Bangalore-based corporate honcho, who is also an MP.

This morning, BJP chief Rajnath Singh convened a meeting of senior colleagues Sushma, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar.

Yeddyurappa was asked to join later with Karnataka BJP chief Sadanand Gowda. “There are some outstanding issues that will hopefully be resolved soon. But leadership is not an issue,” Rajnath told reporters later.